Her Fallen Champion
by ChoCedric
Summary: Repost. No one knows that during DH, Cho was caught by Snatchers and taken to Malfoy Manor. Instead of killing her, they taunt her with a memory, a memory which causes her to feel nothing but anger, hatred, and grief.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Author's Note: I have done some major editing to this story and am now reposting it. I hope you enjoy, and please review!

Her Fallen Champion

By: ChoCedric

It had been another long day at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries for Cho Chang, a day filled with hard work and training. Ever since she could remember, Cho had wanted to be a Healer. Now her dream was finally coming true, and she wanted to help heal as many people as possible. Times were hard now with Lord Voldemort on the rise, and the more people she could help, the better.

Anger surged in her gut whenever she thought of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, the very people who had killed the only boy she'd ever loved, Cedric Diggory. There was not a day that went by that Cho still didn't miss Cedric and his warm smile, or miss the sight of his gray eyes lighting up with laughter. Often, her mind would conjure up images of him decaying in the ground, his beautiful gray eyes rotting away, his wonderful lips she'd loved to kiss being infested with bugs. To think that one man, Lord Voldemort, had caused this to happen was unbearable.

In the days of their loving courtship, she'd pictured her and Cedric owning a house, getting married, having children ... but now, all those dreams were shattered. People told her that she needed to move on, that he wouldn't want to see what she had become, but she was a warrior now, fighting to keep people alive so their loved ones could see them again. Cho could still remember Cedric's lifeless body lying on the Quidditch pitch, screams and sobs punctuating the air. The memory made her want to shrivel up and die herself.

As she walked home, she started muttering to herself under her breath some of the oaths the staff at St. Mungo's had made her repeat. Patient confidentiality was one thing that was stressed very definitely, and she vowed to herself that she would never break that oath. "And by the time the final battle comes," she said, "Lord V-V-Voldemort won't know what's come to him."

Cho suddenly stopped walking and gasped, realizing what she'd just done. For the first time in her life, she'd said Voldemort's name out loud. But she realized that instead of feeling fear at hearing his name now, she felt nothing but pure, unadulterated loathing and rage. She wanted to kill the man that had murdered her dreams in cold blood.

Suddenly, Cho heard pops of apparition all around her. Immediately on alert, she grabbed her wand out of her pocket and raised it, but she wasn't fast enough. "Expelliarmus!" a voice yelled, and Cho, horrified, realized that she was surrounded. Her wand flew out of her hand and landed in the outstretched palm of one of the wizards surrounding her. Cho didn't recognize any of them, but knew they weren't friends; they were enemies.

"Petrificus Totalus!" another man cried, and Cho immediately felt her body go rigid. Fear enveloped her as the man leered down at her. "Who dares to speak the Dark Lord's name so boldly?" he sneered quietly. "Who dares to mock the greatest wizard of all time?"

"Please, let me go!" Cho shrieked, tears beginning to fill her eyes. Is this what Cedric went through? she thought. Was he screaming, begging for help right before the end? If it was what he'd gone through, she couldn't handle it!

She felt another Death Eater grab both of her hands, and a moment later, she felt as though she was being squeezed through a tube. After the sensation was gone, she realized she was outside a huge-looking manor.

"May I ask your name, miss?" another male voice snarled mockingly. "Or will that be too inconvenient for you?"

Terror still gripping at her, Cho was disgusted by her own weakness as she spluttered, "My name is C-C-Cho Chang."

"Ah, a recent Hogwarts graduate," purred the voice of a female. "Let's bring her in the manor and see what Lucius and his family has to say."

The next thing Cho knew, she was on the floor of the sitting room of Malfoy Manor, with Lucius, his wife, Draco, and Bellatrix all staring down at her, sinister grins on their faces. "This Muggle-lover thought she had the right to say our Lord's name like it was nothing," sneered a Death Eater maliciously.

"The stupid girl didn't know the name was tabooed," another one jeered.

"And who is this, may I ask?" smirked Lucius Malfoy as he looked her up and down.

"It is C-Cho Chang, Father," Draco stuttered, fear evident in his voice.

If possible, Lucius's smile grew even more sinister. "Ah, the famed Miss Chang," he said as Bellatrix let out a high-pitched cackle of glee. "Thank you for bringing her, ladies and gentlemen. Now leave; we will take care of her."

"Very well," a female Death Eater simpered as she and her comrades walked out of the manor.

"Well, well, well," said Bellatrix. "We know all about you, Miss Chang. We know a lot about your Hogwarts history."

"Why don't you remind us, Draco, of her sad past?" Lucius smirked smugly in his son's direction.

"Ah, yes," Draco drawled, a little confidence coming back into his tone. "She's a pathetic crybaby. You see, the Dark Lord ordered the death of her loverboy, Cedric Diggory."

"And you haven't been the same since, have you, Miss Chang?" said Narcissa coolly.

Cho's face turned red with anger. "How dare you!" she shrieked. "How dare you talk about Cedric!"

"Oh, we dare, Miss Chang," Bellatrix laughed. "He was in the way of the Dark Lord's mission. Anyone who gets in the way of my master pays with their life, including your precious boyfriend."

Tears fell down Cho's cheeks as she tried to be brave in the face of these monsters, but the grief overwhelmed her once again. "You foul, evil ..." she started.

"Take her down to the cellar, Bella," Lucius demanded. "Wormtail's down there. Tell him who our guest is, and inform him that he needs to show her a specific memory that will be put in my Pensieve." Unlocking a cabinet with his wand and then opening it, he pulled down a stone basin. "Let this pathetic, blubbering baby see the work of our Lord. I'm sure Wormtail will provide the correct memory."

"No, no, no! Leave me alone!" Cho screamed as she was levitated down some stairs and into a cold, unfeeling cellar. She knew immediately what she was going to see, and she dreaded every moment of it. These people were just too cruel for words. She didn't want to see her beloved boyfriend being tortured, his eyes hollow, his face filled with shock, helplessness, and fear. She was sure that was what she was going to witness if she dived into this memory.

Cho was sobbing uncontrollably as she heard Bellatrix explaining in a self-satisfied tone to Wormtail exactly what was happening in the manor, and Cho struggled within her invisible bonds, trying in vain to get free. When Bellatrix got to the end of her tale, Wormtail appeared with a little smile on his face. Bellatrix handed him the Pensieve and, numb with shock, Cho watched him withdraw a silvery strand of memory from his head and place it in the stone basin carved with runes.

"Now, you will put your hand in here and watch your dreams shatter right before your very eyes," said Wormtail as he took the Petrificus Totalus spell off her. Cho tried to escape, but Wormtail was too quick for her. Because Cho was in emotional pain and horror, he was easily able to plunge her hand into the Pensieve. "NOOOOOO!" Cho screeched as she felt a falling sensation, and the next thing she knew, she was standing in a graveyard.

And there stood Cedric, whole and alive, but looking extremely confused. Harry was with him, and they stared at their surroundings in bewilderment.

With undiluted fear and sadness seizing her, she listened to Harry and Cedric's conversation about where they were, and what could have gone wrong. "Wands out, d'you reckon?" she heard Cedric's comforting voice say.

"Yeah," Harry's young voice replied, and they both held out their wands. Cho continued to watch as both boys realized someone was coming, and the man who called himself "Wormtail" appeared, carrying what looked like a baby in his arms.

Suddenly, Cho saw Harry grab his forehead and fall to the ground, moaning in pain. What's going on? Cho thought with terror. Why's he grabbing his scar like that?

Then, a cold, high-pitched voice screeched, "Kill the spare!"

It happened so quickly, so suddenly that you could have blinked and missed it, but to Cho, it felt like everything was going in slow motion. She saw Wormtail point his wand at Cedric and shriek, "Avada Kedavra!"

"Get out of the way, Cedric!" Cho screamed hysterically as anger, hatred, and grief poured through her. She felt a swoop of relief that Cedric hadn't been tortured, but to be called a spare and be snuffed out like an insect somehow made it ten times worse. She watched in horror as a flash of green light enveloped the love of her life, and then, tears still streaming down her face, she saw him fall. When the light disappeared, she bent down and stared into his lifeless gray eyes, which were now gazing at the night sky, a look of surprise, shock, and fear on his handsome face. Cho felt sick with grief and anger as she looked at him. Just two words and a life had been snuffed out, all because an evil monster wanted him out of the way. And this Wormtail man was the worst kind of scum, killing a seventeen-year-old boy who'd had hopes and dreams for the future all because his "master" told him to!

Cho touched Cedric's limp hand, but because this was a memory, her hand went right through his. "Oh, love," she sobbed as she continued to stare into his lifeless eyes. "I loved you so much! You're not a spare, baby, you're not, you're not!" Rocking back and forth hysterically, she kept chanting to herself, "You're not a spare, you're not a spare ..." All the while, memories flooded her mind of them dancing together, his warm gray eyes looking into hers with love and joy for life. She remembered them sitting on the grass, talking about their future with his arms wrapped protectively around her. And this monster had thought he was nothing, nothing but an insect that needed to be eliminated.

Cho suddenly felt nausea bubble within her, and the contents of her stomach released themselves all over the ground of the graveyard right near Cedric's lifeless body. When she had finished, she wiped her mouth with her sleeve and once again gazed into Cedric's gray eyes. "Love you, baby. I'm so sorry," she whispered.

Then, she felt a feeling of rising upwards, and before she knew it, she was back in the cellar of Malfoy Manor, staring at the grinning faces of Wormtail, Lucius, Narcissa, Draco, and Bellatrix. Draco, Narcissa, and Lucius had come in while Cho was watching the memory.

"So, how did you like that, Miss Chang?" drawled Lucius. "It does not take much to kill joy, does it?"

"I hate you!" Cho yelled, hysterical and out of control. "You killed him, you bastard!" she howled at Wormtail, lunging at him, but Lucius grabbed her and stopped her from releasing all her anger on him.

"Yes, I killed him," Wormtail said without any hint of emotion. "He was in the way."

"I LOVED HIM!" Cho yowled. "How could you do that to a person? He was only seventeen!"

"Because he was on the wrong side, my friend," sneered Bellatrix. "And that was a real pity. He could have been saved if he ..."

"SHUT UP!" Cho interrupted shrilly. "Cedric would NEVER have joined your side! He knew the difference between right and wrong! You COWARD," she screamed at Wormtail, "you didn't even give him the chance to fight back!" To this, Wormtail just smiled cruelly.

"Kill me!" Cho shrieked then, the ocean of grief drowning her. "Kill me like you killed him! You have me right where you want me, kill me and get it over with!"

"Ah," said Lucius, smirking. "I can see right into your thoughts, Miss Chang. Your heart's desire is to die and be with him, is it not?"

Cho didn't answer this, but glowered at Lucius with all the venom and hatred she possessed.

"I know your answer is yes," said Bellatrix cruelly. "That is exactly why we are not going to kill you. It is better for you to know how he died, and to know that you can't be with him until you're old and gray, than for us to kill you now."

Cho let out a cry of rage and flew at Bellatrix, but Lucius once again held her back. His grip was so strong that no matter how many times Cho flailed and punched at him, it was no use.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Lucius drawled, causing Cho to fall to the floor again, her body rigid. The next thing she knew, she was being levitated up the stairs, and then she was pushed out of the house.

"Fare thee well, my friend," Lucius said mockingly as he took the spell off her and was about to slam the door. "I surmise that you can apparate."

"You loooooved him sooooo much, ickle baby Chang," Bellatrix taunted. "And now he's goooone and is never coming baaaaack!" Raucous laughter emitted from the house as the door was shut with a bang, leaving Cho a sobbing wreck, alone and miserable, images of seeing the only boy she'd ever love fall playing again and again behind her eyelids. She knew she'd never, ever be the same again.


End file.
